Life, Death, and Renewal The Birth of a Villain
by tarrin4ever
Summary: What leads a man to become a villain? Is it his fate, or the result of a life of misery? Told through his own eyes, we learn the tale about the bandit who fell in love with a priestess, and how his actions would change the world forever.


Life, Death, and Renewal

- The Birth of a Villain -

"I wasn't worthy enough to have her. She is so pure, and I am nothing."

I _was_ nothing.

In the years that would soon usher in the fall of the feudal lords, life in the small villages and farms was fraught with struggle. Crops failed, food was scarce, and the strife between the states halted trade between the neighbouring towns. Among all the other problems arising in the world, my birth only added to them.

Like my fathers before me, I was doomed to live amongst the filth of the world. No honourable title adorns my family's house. My line was descendants of beggars and scum. Poverty was my nursery, and longing was a lifelong illness for me.

All my life I have longed for more. More of anything really, as long as I had a chance to escape this worthless existence I called living. How I spent many a night dreading that I'd repeat my forefathers' fate and let myself waste away into nothing. They lost the will to live because they had nothing. But maybe if I had everything, I could become something more. Someone great.

Those things that were not mine to cherish; heirlooms of a great lord, daughters of noble houses, or simply a well crafted sword, would call out to me. The thought that something could never belong to men such as me was infuriating. Nothing should ever be unattainable to someone if their ambitions are strong enough. So I'd find ways to steal them. I'd take whatever I wanted, and if necessary, kill whoever got in my way.

Ten years I spent, robbing travellers, raiding storerooms, and working with other men who shared in my quest to quell ones desires.

As my acquisitions increased, so did my desires. I discovered that petty theft wasn't enough. All that I had amassed was now nothing but garbage to me. They didn't fill the longing in my heart, just buried it deeper until it found its way out again. I needed something more.

Eventually my life of endless thievery caught up with me, karma they call it. Just as I had left others with nothing, fate took all that I had away from me in one violent night.

I was a broken man, left to die in the dirt and rejoin my ancestors amongst the refuse. With all that I owned taken away from me, I sought refuge amongst those that I had preyed upon. But no lords would grant me any charity; no shrine monks would listen to my prayers. They both knew my prayers were false, and my assistance undeserving. Not even the great deities of the heavens would answer my cries.

Only the priestess paid any notice to me. She had discovered me during her visit to the village I resided in. She beheld a bitter man who had been utterly defeated by an uncaring world. But she alone found pity in my condition; she must have believed that even the most despicable of men still had a chance at redemption.

Her very presence seemed to cleanse my soul. Whatever wickedness I'd once done seemed to vanish from my mind. Whatever was left of my heart seemed to find balance. I'd found a reason to live again. No other woman had ever filled the endless longing I'd carried within me.

She spent a great deal of time with me, these lasts few weeks. More than she normally allowed herself I suppose. While she cared for me, she'd speak of her duties and how they controlled her life. That made us opposites I suppose. Her life had a greater purpose, while mine had no meaning.

I've searched for more all my years, and coveted much during my life. She was the first of my longings that I ever loved though.

She must have known my thoughts. Deep down, she must have seen the way I looked at her while she tended to me. She'd always smile; tell me how things will soon be better in the world.

I planned on confessing my feeling to her this night, to let the words bring my feelings out into the open. She would listen to my declarations and stay with me forever. She would love me, and I would never need anything else ever again. I would be complete.

On the eve of my confession, she told me that she was leaving… And that I could not come with her.

In less time it would take my mind to form single word to delay her, she was already gone.

Why did she leave me? Didn't she know how much I needed her?

Once again I cried out to the heavenly beings, this time begging for answers to my questions. No one on earth could show me the mind of a priestess. She was never known to associate with anyone else outside of her duties.

Her duties. That was the answer.

She hid behind her responsibilities as a priestess, she would not allow herself to love. That was not her life, not her world. Purification, healing the sick, and bringing balance to an unbalanced land, that was her world.

I wasn't worthy enough to have her. She was pure, and I was nothing.

No one else could live that world with her. Except for the demons…

When man's transgression became too large, the demons came. They revelled in the wars and the famine, and would devour any remaining life they found.

She was the one that would face them. She was one of the few that challenged their powers, and they hated her for it.

In a world of demons, this man had no place. She was gone now, taking along with her, her soothing presence.

_You can't let her leave_

"I can't let her leave."

_She belongs to you._

"I own her!"

"No… That's not me anymore," I said aloud to myself. "I've changed, I changed for her! Why can't she see that?"

I wasn't sure which of the two voices was mine. Both held the same resonances, but one was steeped in anger and malice, while the other was weak and full of despair.

"Who's there?" I knew that was from me. It was my question, and it came from the weaker voice.

The angry voice spoke again, ignoring my question.

_She doesn't care about you, poor man._

It taunted me now in its own voice, like the sound of wood splitting. It spoke aloud my worst fears. Soon it was joined by others.

_You're nothing but scum to her._

_**Wicked men like you will never claim her**._

**How could a priestess love a man so foul and cruel**

_You sicken her, thief!_

"No!" She does care, I know she does." I said, trying now to convince myself.

But if it wasn't true, then why isn't she here anymore?

I realised then that her concerns for me never surpassed her pity for me. She saw me as nothing but a wounded animal, something that she could tend to and then abandon when she got bored of it. Not a man at all.

_Let us help you, poor man. Let us in, and she will be yours forever. _

"But how? How can you help me?"

_**By granting you power. You will have the power to have whatever you want, kill whoever you choose**. **She can be yours again**._

Power. I've felt that power before. It had once made me strong, gave me a name. It made me more than the filth I would have become otherwise. She only cared for the filth.

But I shall make her love me, the real me.

"She's mine and mine alone."

I can feel them now, entering my mind and my body. The demons who feared her power so, now gave me the power to take her away. Their thoughts now echo in my head, and my soul held their anger along with my own.

I am becoming more than a man now. I am the vessel of nightmares. An instrument of hell. With their power inside me I shall leave my old world behind, and enter into hers. As a conqueror.

My sins shall be my weapon, and pain will be my shield. And these demons shall become my armour. All will fear my name, and the horrors that I shall reign upon them.

With wrath at my side, I shall cover all the lands in darkness. Till all that is pure in this world is gone, except only my fair bride.

In the world of dark, her radiant light shall brand her as an enemy to all that remains. She will have no choice but to come to me. I will be her salvation.

And not even life will ever keep her away from me. If she chooses death over me, I shall haunt her very soul till the end of time, and she would have no way to banish me. Death will reunite us, and I'll bring the whole world with us.

"You will soon be mine, fair priestess. The two of us will be bound to each other, forever. Our two souls will become one. Those who survive the coming darkness will know of the union between me, _Pretu, _he who sold his own soul to the demons_."_

"And you the priestess, my Midoriko."

**Winner 3nd Place iyficcontest Theme: Villain, Week 38**


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